Primal Journal - KMc

I'm feeling good today, so why not use that energy to finally get the ball rolling on one of these journals. Having all you primal peeps reading it will definitely add a much needed aspect of outside accountability for me.

I plan to generally lay it out in three sections: workout, nutrition, overall mood/experience. I may post every day, a few times a week, or, for all I know, this will be one of those ever popular one-time-installment journals that quickly slips into the deep dark bowels of cyberspace.

Preface: Started primal/paleo in the beginning of February, 2011, around the same time I started doing Crossfit at school with a friend. I've wavered between 95/5 and 75/25 primal/not primal depending on where I am and what I'm doing. I tend to travel a lot during the school year, and living in hostels and hopping on and off of planes makes for a difficult time when you're trying to eat primal... all the alcohol associated with college life doesn't help either. Regardless, it worked! Here are some pics.

I've more or less maintained for the next month and a half:
June 5th , 2011, 184 lbsP1020562..jpg
(Approx 13-15% BF for the last two. I've got some calipers on the way to get a more accurate number)

One of the reasons I want to start this journal is because I'm just today starting to do regular carb refeeds (in the suggested leangains style, high carb/high portein on heavy workout days, high fat/high protein on off days,) in an attempt to break through the plateau I've been at for the last two months or so. My strength still manages to climb, but I want to dial in my conditioning to 10% or less BF. It's beach season, and I've never been this close to having a 6 pack in my life... I'll be damned if I don't get it at some point.

Approximate max lifts:

Deadlift: 325
Squat: 285
Military Press: 155

That should be enough information to get started... So here we go!

6/20/2011

Workout:

Mid afternoon crossfit routine with a friend at school. Started off with a flexibility warm-up, then a pyramid up to 205 x 12 squats (supposed to be a bit higher, 80% of 1 rep max, but my lower back is a bit tweaked, so I decided not to push it.) Followed that with a quick metcon prescribed by the local Crossfit affiliate I attend. 100 jumping jacks, 75 free squats, 50 push ups, 25 burpees. Total time: 6:17.

Nutrition:

Doing the leangains style IF (approx 8/16 split, sometimes more like 3/21 because of work though... it can be hard to get 2k+ calories in a 3 hour window.) Broke a 17 hour fast at 11:30 AM with a grilled chicken leg and a light salad. That was it until my workout at 3:00 PM. After that, had a banana and a Boloco burrito bowl with extra meat and lots of veggies (no rice/tortilla. Not my favorite meal, since I can't control the oils used cooking the veggies or the quality of the meat, but I was a good 45 minutes away from home and wanted to grab food with my workout partner before hitting the road.) Had dinner around 7:30. Big hunk of steak, lots of sweet potato fries, grilled broccoli and zucchini, an apple, and a blueberry almond milk smoothie. I haven't calculated exactly how my macro nutrients broke down, but it looks to be around 200-250g of carbs, plenty of protein, and a nominal amount of fat (dark meat chicken, fairly lean steak, a tbsp of oil on the veggies + fries... no added fat as I normally would have to do to get enough calories while eating super low carb.)

Overall:

Feeling good. Spent the morning at the beach, getting some solid vitamin D action. No work today either! I'll be spending my evening doing some studying (trying to get certified as a personal trainer to try to get out of my menial job as a bus boy.)

I'm curious to see how adding carbs after my workouts (4-5 days a week crossfit routines with strength and metcon components) will affect my general attitude and energy. Recently, after heavy workouts, I tended to get lethargic. I would compensate by trying to up my calorie intake with fats and proteins, but by the time I got to work, I'd be somewhat irritable and generally quite slow. Hopefully that will no longer be an issue!

Really sore today still... I made the mistake of running too far barefoot on Sunday without working up to it appropriately, so my calves are a mess.

Other than that, the carb refeeding seems to be a nice change. I didn't get lethargic and irritable at work yesterday as I have been recently. The day after the feed I definitely packed on some water weight, but it disappeared already.